McFarland vs. Spencer, Round 100

KT McFarland is weathering another bad news cycle, after intrepid NY Post reporter Ken Lovett apparently risked life and limb to land an interview with the candidate’s father in Wisconsin, who hotly denied her abuse allegations.Â

Forbes, Spencer’s national finance chair, declared in an e-mail missive to potential contributors that “stopping Hillary Clinton is one of the most important – if not THE most important – objectives for conservative Republicans.”Â

Recent polls have shown the biggest challenge facing both McFarland and Spencer is a significant lack of name recognition – a particularly big road block when challenging a pol with the status of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Forbes alludes to this problem in his e-mail:

“As I am sure you have heard, poll after poll shows that left-wing Senator Hillary Clinton will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008.

What you may not have yet heard is that conservative Republican and former Mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, is making tremendous progress toward defeating Senator Clinton in her U.S. Senate race this year — before she can launch her plan to become President.”

McFarland is planning on doing some fundraising of her own – although her big night, featuring Reagan-era military brass – isn’t until July 13, which means the take won’t count toward this quarter’s FEC tallies.

In the meantime, as has been widely reported, McFarland plans to use her own cash to tide over her campaign. Adviser Ed Rollins seems to consider this a sort of bridge loan. He’s already plotting a post-primary strategy to keep his candidate alive should she lose to Spencer in September.